Diet and subsistence in remote Oceania: An analysis using oral indicators of diet

Examining diet and subsistence patterns of prehistoric humans is especially important in Remote Oceania, where the generally ecologically sparse islands predicated the need for human-moderated colonizing adaptations in order for settlements to thrive. While Near Oceania (Figure 17.1) is home to numerous species of mammals, land birds, and terrestrial flora, there is a sharp decline in ecological biodiversity as one continues eastwards into Remote Oceania (Steadman 2006; Stoddart 1992). When Austronesian-speaking people arrived in Remote Oceania around 1,350 bce (Denham et al. 2012; Kirch 1997; Spriggs 1997), they brought with them a transplanted landscape of root vegetables, tree crops, and animal domesticates that were integral to the human subsistence systems (Kennett et al. 2006).